East Coast motorhome trip

[richardingle@comcast.net]

Hello.

We are taking our second trip in our motorhome. We’re going from Savannah, Ga., up the East Coast, ending in Connecticut. Then the problem starts. Where should we go from there?

We were thinking about Nova Scotia, maybe into Canada. We will have three months. Any ideas about routes or campgrounds? We were hoping to find a spot that is cool in the summer (since we are from hot Florida) and that has some things nearby to keep us busy for about a month.

Does anyone have any ideas? We will fly home (from where, we don’t know yet) and stay home approximately two weeks before flying back to wherever,

We will continue our trip through October.

If anyone has any ideas, it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Richard

[tbutler]

If you haven't seen New England, the coast of Maine has some beautiful sights. It should be cool and there are beautiful campgrounds with views of the coast. We stayed at one just north of Pemiquid with very nice facilities, Saltwater Farm Campground. Further north is Acadia National Park. We stayed at a campground near there, Hospitality Woods. Up near the border with Canada is Hilltop Campground. We stayed there and made final preparations to go into Canada (had to kill a couple of bottles of wine). Beautiful hilltop views there. We visited Eastport (almost the easternmost point in the US (there is a chip of land - island just a little further east). We looked at some land to buy near Eastport - dreaming about a summer place to park our RV with a view of the sea! As you get into this area, you will begin to see some tides that will drop your jaw if you think of tides as being what you see in Florida! This is the gateway to the Bay of Fundy which has the worlds highest tides.

Off the coast near Eastport, ME is the summer "cottage" of the Roosevelt family (Franklin not TR). Campobello is in Canada but is accessed from the US via a short bridge and a beautiful place to be seen. We explored all the way to the lighthouse at the eastern end of Campobello, even climbing down and walking on the sea floor to get to the light house. Don't stay too long or you will have to wait a while to get back (or swim).

On into Canada, New Brunswick has several great attractions. Put your motor home on the "big" ferry and go to Grand Manan Island. We have friends there that do whale watching trips (Whales and Sails) on a sailboat. You will get a good look at whales with any luck. We stayed at , I'm not kidding, Hole in the Wall Campground which is just a few blocks from the ferry. There are lighthouses and quaint villages to be explored. We took a ferry to Whitehead Island from Grand Manan taking only our bicycles. We rode the entire road around Whitehead Island (it isn't that long). There is a nicer campground on Grand Manan but I don't have the name. It is about 8 miles east of the ferry, only one main road!

Back to New Brunswick via the ferry and on to Fundy National Park. We got a nice RV spot right in the park. Great trails and plenty of scenery. On east along the coast brings you to The Hopewell Rocks. Here the tides vary by about 30 feet from low to high tide and you can walk the sea floor around formations known as "Flower Pots." Or if you prefer, you can kayak around the flower pots at high tide. Nova Scotia has Halifax, well worth a week or so. At Truro you can watch the tidal bore come racing up river (this can be seen in a smaller scale in St. John and in some spots along the Maine coast as well. The best place we found for tides was at Burncoat Lighthouse on the north shore of Nova Scotia to the west of Truro. There you can walk thousands of feet out on the rocky ocean floor at low tide. Walk all around an island a low tide and see it as an island from the lighthouse at high tide. The attendant at the lighthouse will talk your ear off if you ask about the tides. A genuine delight! The eastern end of Nova Scotia is the incredibly beautiful Cape Breton. We toured the island in our motor home. Be prepared for some rough roads. Patience will serve you well here when driving but all these roads are traveled by commercial buses. We stayed at several campgrounds in Cape Breton National Park. Great hiking and scenery. There is a coal mine museum at Glace Bay. You can tour a 1930's coal mine and hear tales of the miners who mined coal under the sea! Tour the mine village and see where miners lived and ate. Eat at the miners cafeteria! Across town is the site where Marconi transmitted the first wireless message across the Atlantic Ocean! Well worth seeing. Not far away is the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site at Baddock. We stayed at the Arm of Gold Campground to tour these last few places. This is also the place to meet the ferry to Newfoundland if you really want to get away from it all! We're planning to take that ferry this summer. Perhaps we'll see you there. There is also a ferry directly back to the US from Yarmouth on the western end of Nova Scotia if you want to take the short cut home. I haven't mentioned the gems we found along the way like the single malt whiskey distillery tour on our way to Cape Breton. Great tour and great single malt whiskey (can't call it Scotch if it doesn't come from Scotland!) There are numerous museums including the Provincial Museum in St. John, New Brunswick. We also took the ferry to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and rode some bicycle trails there. We left PEI via the Confederation Bridge.

The weather will be cool and the experience will be something you remember. You didn't mention if you fish, if so, there are places to fish everywhere. The lobster industry is fascinating to see and of course you'll get great Lobster at ridiculous prices. Ask the natives for the best spots to eat because you likely wouldn't go into some of these places if you relied on your first impression!

If going to Canada, bone up on the regulations, liquor, guns and tobacco are hot topics. You'll need a passport for ease of passage. Investigate flight prices for your return trip to Florida, you may want to return to the US and fly from Bangor, ME instead of flying from somewhere in Canada.

[ditto]

Please look at Cape Cod!!! great place to visit... Close to Boston..and Northern NE!!

[johnjudy3@verizon.net]

The military RV Club "SMART" for active and retired military has several caravans. One is doing the east coast into Canada this fall. Look up SMART.com if you qualify. At minimum read the caravan details!

[Guest Wayne77590]

Fisherman's Memorial State Park, Narragansett, RI, is only 20 minutes from Newport RI. Spend a few days in Newport. Take the Mansion's tour. I preferred going by ourselves since 90% of the tours can be self guided with audio headsets. Run up to the piers around 11:00 a.m. and buy a lobster or two for $8 a piece, go back tot he MH and through them on the grill for about 15-20 minutes. Tour downtown newport shops and restaurants.

We will be in Savannah May 10th. Have you scheduled your dates yet?

[garykd]

Hi Richard,

If you decide to go to Canada, make sure everyone has their passport or other approved document. Go to USA Citizens Traveling To/From Canada for information and instructions.

[drper2@comcast.net]

1. Try to avoid US 95 up through DC, Maryland, Pa. Take Norfork to Bay Tunnel Bridge up through the DelMarVa prnninsula (Rt 13) There r some great stops a, Cherrystone camp just north of thr Bay Tunnel Bridge, also look for Chincoteage (Tom's Cove).

2. get north and miss NYC crap, try 81/83 through Penna Dutch County and the Pocono's. Lancaster County (Old Mill Stream camp is one of the best campsites in the east.

[Pam@Hyatt-Survey.com]

We are from Florida and took a trip last summer with the kids to Nova Scotia. Highly recommend this trip! We stopped in Boston on the way there and Philadelphia on the way home for a little history. We absolutely loved the Maine coast (especially Bar Harbor). We took the ferry from Portland, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and on the return trip went from Yarmouth to Bar Harbor. The ferry was very expensive with a 42' RV towing a Jeep, but quicker than driving around. We stayed at a pretty little campground right on the Bay of Fundy in Parker's Cove, Nova Scotia. The campground was called "The Cove" and every site overlooks the Bay with it's massive tides. Very pretty quaint towns all around. Would have loved to go to the northern part of Nova Scotia and drive the Cabot Trail, but time didn't allow. Maybe next time! Also went whale watching from Brier Island. The worst part of the whole trip was getting through the NJ/NY area. If you can find a way around instead of direct route, I would recommend it! Friends of ours that we met along the way spent some time in New Hampshire and said it was beautiful.